Laurens van der Donk / Hotline, Boys Without Brains
Added on April 5th, 2004 (9114 views)
www.c64.com?type=3&id=119



Tell us something about yourself.
Laurens van der Donk, 33, Helmond, The Netherlands, 1970-10-18, Aarle-Rixtel. I'm running a company together with Mario van Zeist, called Euphoria Software (www.euphoria-it.nl). We are working with seven people and we have built a complete software solution for Taxi Companies on Windows computers. At the moment we're busy with a software solution for transport companies.

What handle(s) did you use and how did you come up with it/them?
I did not have any handle, I used my first name.

What group(s) were you in?
Hotline and The Boys Without Brains (BWB).

What roles have you fulfilled?
Coder.

How long were you active for?
1984-1991.

Tell us about those years and how you got into the scene in the first place.
I was always interested in playing games and technology. By playing games I got interested to make them myself.

Describe a typical day for you in front of the computer.
Getting up very late, programming, programming and programming, go to sleep at 3:30 and live on crisps and Coke.

Did you personally invent any special techniques or tools to make things easier for you?
Flimbo's Quest (which I did) was the first game on the C64 with a parallax scroll (and 1/2 speed moving background), Mario van Zeist had the first Parallax scroll in Hawkeye (background didn't move).

When you look at what you did back then, what are you most proud of?
Flimbo's Quest.

Who were your heroes on the scene and why?
Tony Crowther because of his original games.

What, for you, was the coolest thing ever invented on the C64?
Opening of the border.

Did you go to any copy-parties, meetings or tradeshows?
Yes, in the beginning I went to several parties.

In your opinion, what was the scene all about?
Meeting people with the same interest.

What were the particular highlights for you?
I really liked a game made by Sodan called Crackers Revenge. I thought it was a great idea of someone from the scene to build a game out of several other games. Many programmers followed him.

Any cool stories to share with us?
When I look back at those years it's kind of funny that I never would have guessed that the C64 I got for Christmas would change my life.

Are you still in contact with any old C64 people today?
Mario van Zeist and I met Stavros Fasoulas last year.

When did you get your C64 and do you still have it lying around somewhere?
I got it in 1983 and I still have it, but I don't know if it works.

Was the C64 really as special as we like to think it was?
I think it was because so many people had a C64 and for most people it was their first computer.

When can we expect to see some new C64 output from you? :)
Aaaaiii, I wish I could tell you.

Do you have a message for your old contacts and/or anyone reading this?
C64 was (and still is) a lovely machine and I had much more pleasure working with it than I'm having now with the super speed big PCs.

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